There’s a striking contrast in how two major American technology companies approach our new cold war with China.
Amazon is serving Americans’ security. Google, in contrast, has supported China and rejected the United States military.
Fortunately, the Trump administration is forcing Google to be a little more patriotic.
On Thursday, Google confirmed that new U.S. regulations mean it is unable to provide software to China’s Huawei telecommunications firm/intelligence agency. Huawei thus has a big problem: It produces high-technology phones, but it can’t support them with Google’s Android platform and its associated apps. That is going to make it rather difficult to sell Huawei phones, and that’s a good thing.
Huawei was built on stolen U.S. intellectual property and now serves as an intelligence service of the Chinese state. Considering that China is embarked on a generational campaign to destroy the U.S.-supported international order and replace it with something that looks a lot like a boot in the face of a Hong Konger, Huawei deserves no quarter from America.
Google, meanwhile, is one of the most dynamic, creative, and exciting American companies of our time. But like Amazon, it has only become so thanks to America’s defense of its interests and property. There is no patriotism in serving China, rejecting America, but benefiting from American protection.
